


i like where we are (here)

by womanaction



Series: long distance relationship (phone sex au) [2]
Category: Community (TV)
Genre: Established Relationship, F/M, Post-Series
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-05-17
Updated: 2017-05-19
Packaged: 2018-11-01 21:32:51
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,028
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10930449
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/womanaction/pseuds/womanaction
Summary: Exploring Abed and Annie's relationship following the events of "i touch the place where i'd find your face." Unabashedly fluffy.





	1. the list, part one

**Author's Note:**

> I thought I was done writing these two for a while but I couldn't stop thinking of more ideas in this 'verse.

“Can I borrow a piece of your to-do list paper?”

Annie looks up from her emails to meet Abed’s eyes. It’s weird, she thinks briefly, how _not_ -weird it is for him to suddenly be here, back in her space after months apart. Sure, they’d talked and texted constantly, but considering they’d parted as friends and reunited as something more, she’d expected things to be less…easy. “Sure, it’s in the top drawer of my desk.”

He nods and she looks back at her emails. _It’s the day before Thanksgiving_ , she thinks with a little frustration as she flags the important ones. Unfortunately, this does little to organize the emails – there are more of those cheerful little stars in her inbox than she can see in D.C.’s night sky. She glances down at the computer clock. About time to stop.

She feels Abed sit back down next to her and hears the comforting sound of pen and paper. Annie closes her laptop quietly and just watches him for a second. His brow is a little furrowed, but his posture is easy and comfortable. He doesn’t take his eyes off the paper, but he knows she’s watching him and he makes no move to stop her as she puts her laptop on the coffee table and scoots in closer. “What are you working on?”

“A list,” he says dryly, but his mouth quirks up a little to let her know that he’s joking.

“A list about what?” she asks in a sing-song voice, putting her head on his shoulder.

“Us.” He stops writing and moves the paper over where she can see. At the top of the page, in her purple sparkly gel pen, he’s written “Abed & Annie: Friends to Lovers Tropes.” He turns toward her, lips grazing her hair. “We don’t have a lot of time in person, so I figured we should do as many of these as possible. That way, by the time we see the rest of the group next month, we’ll be a fully integrated couple. It should decrease overall weirdness by at least 15 percent.”

Annie does her best to hide her smile. On one hand, she knows that things with the group will be weird no matter what they do, but that it shouldn’t matter because they’re happy. They should just be themselves. On the other hand, she can’t think of something more themselves than acting out a bunch of movie tropes written as an organized to-do list.

In fact, the only item Abed has written so far is “Make list of tropes together.” “I was waiting for you to finish your work,” he offers as an explanation when she looks up. He nudges her and drops the gel pen into her hand. She sits up a little more, oddly eager.

Then she pauses. “Abed, you’ve watched a lot more movies than me. I don’t know what the Friends to Lovers tropes _are_.”

“Basically, we just need to show the audience that we are successfully transitioning into a romantic relationship by doing the same things that we did as friends, but with an additional romantic and/or sexual component.”

“So let’s make a list of all the things we do together and then write the romantic equivalent!” she decides. Abed gives her another little smile.

“Okay, we…talk on the phone,” she says, writing as she talks.

“Phone sex. Check.”

“We text a lot. I guess that would be…sexting?” She blushes a little. For some reason, sending a suggestive picture seems bolder than just talking about what they’d do. Or actually doing it.

“Makes sense,” he agrees. Then he frowns. “Does that make you uncomfortable, Annie?”

She doesn’t want to seem like a prude, but she also can’t lie to him. “I…don’t know. Maybe. What if one of us was in public?”

Abed thinks about this for a second. “We could just go into different rooms and send pictures in the apartment. That would be enough to satisfy the trope, if it would make you comfortable. And then we wouldn’t have to do it again if you don’t like it.”

“That seems okay.” Not so scary, and could be a little fun. Sort of like roleplaying. A thought occurs to her. “Do _you_ like it?”

“I don’t know. We haven’t tried it.”

“Should we…do it now?” she asks, warming up to the idea. She had bought some cute underwear a week before he arrived and hasn’t broken them out.

He thinks about it for a second. “I figured we would make the list and then start a montage of crossing things off – ”

She tries not to let her disappointment show.

“ – but we can cut it together later,” he says quickly.

She smiles. “Really?”

“Yeah, let’s do it.”

Abed holds up a hand for a high-five at the same time Annie leans forward to kiss him on the cheek. They freeze. Annie course-corrects, holding up her own hand, just as Abed abandons his gesture to hug her.

“Next item: decide on basic affectionate response,” he says from somewhere above her right ear.

She kisses his t-shirt-covered-shoulder. “Agreed.”


	2. the list, part two

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This dipped a little farther into angst than I intended but still ends in a decidedly fluffy manner.

They are making excellent progress on the Friends to Lovers Tropes list, Abed thinks. In just three days, they had: gone shopping together holding hands, made out during a movie, fed each other, taken pictures in a photo booth, and run a decidedly romantic Han/Leia simulation (that resulted in sex in an unconventional location – Annie’s kitchen floor – killing two birds with one stone). There are only two items left on the list that can be completed before he leaves tomorrow: “go on a real date” and “find ‘our song’.” It’s early afternoon, so theoretically they should have plenty of time to choose a song before going out.

Annie, of course, has rules. “It can’t be obscure,” she says. “Because then I’ll never be able to say ‘oh honey, look, it’s our song!’ when we’re in public, which is pretty much why couples pick songs in the first place.” He thinks she sounds a little bitter, but doesn’t question her logic.

“Are you going to call me honey?” he asks suddenly. “We should add ‘decide on terms of endearment’ to the list.”

“We can do that on the date,” she says dismissively, but she writes it down anyway. He’s more than a little pleased by how much she likes his list idea. He had predicted she would, of course, but of all the people he’s known, he thinks Annie may be one of the most unpredictable. He wonders if he should tell her that some time. She might be a little flattered. When Annie is flattered, she flushes from cheeks down and she gets a small, secret smile. Her voice gets softer, too. When they’re just on the phone he can picture her reaction but it’s not the same.

“And Abed?” she continues, snapping him back to attention. Annie looks into his eyes with something like purpose, and she reaches out and takes his hand. He’s not sure how to interpret the gesture; she’s always held his hand a lot, and over the last few days especially. “This is supposed to be _our_ song. I don’t want it to remind you of some couple in a movie. It needs to be just for us.”

“I don’t know many songs that aren’t from movies or TV,” he says, feeling a little adrift. This was one of Annie’s additions to the list and he wants to show as much enthusiasm as she gave his suggestions.

Annie entwines their fingers together. “How about I think of songs and you tell me if they remind you too much of a particular movie?”

That could work. He nods.

She looks at him and she reddens a little. “These might be kinda cheesy,” she says, looking away.

“Aren’t they supposed to be?” He nudges her. She smiles into her lap.

“Okay…Can’t Take My Eyes Off You.”

“ _10 Things I Hate About You._ And _Bridget Jones_ , the first one.”

“Oh, right. Um…Iris.”

“ _City of Angels_.” He hasn’t watched any Nicolas Cage movies since that class. It’s for the best. “Did you and Vaughn have a song?”

“No. Did you and Rachel?”

“No. Did you and Jeff?”

Annie pauses, and he knows. His stomach gives a little lurch – jealousy, he supposes, although he knows what her next words will be. “Jeff and I were never together.”

“But had you picked out a song?” he presses, not sure why he wants to know so badly.

She clears her throat. “Can’t Help Falling In Love.”

He considers this for a moment. It makes sense. Jeff and Annie represented a classic opposites-attract pairing, and their age difference was another significant obstacle. He doesn’t say anything, but he squeezes her hand, hoping she understands.

She smiles and continues with the suggestions as if nothing happened. “Love Me Tender?”

“ _Die Hard 2._ ” Besides, he wouldn’t want them to have an Elvis song after what she’s just confessed.

“Seriously?” Annie looks annoyed, but her eyes are sparkling. She loves having problems to solve. “Okay, Truly Madly Deeply.”

“ _Music From Another Room_.”

“I haven’t seen that one.”

He shrugs. “You didn’t miss much. But it was the main theme.”

“Your Song? Wait, never mind – _Moulin Rouge!_. Every Breath You Take?”

Abed gives her a look.

“Okay, I know it’s a little creepy, but don’t you think it’s kinda romantic too? Besides…we were all listening to Roxanne when you asked me to move in with you and Troy. We could have a kind of Police theme.”

That was four years ago now. He wonders if she sees that as a pivotal point in their relationship. It was shortly after the timelines diverged – did it happen in those other timelines? And if not, did anything ever happen between them?

Probably not, he thinks. Jeff and Annie were only an unlikely pair in the way that rom-com couples usually were, with obstacles and differences serving to make them more appealing. Abed and Annie were much more unlikely, a freak accident of fate. If he never invited her to move in with them in those other timelines, or if she declined for some reason, they never would have become such close friends. Without her stabilizing and inspiring influence after Troy left (which was, he thinks, inevitable), he would have been much less productive and withdrawn; without his suggestion, she might not have pursued forensics. They might both still be at Greendale, Annie with Jeff, and Abed with his movies. After all, he had only met Rachel because of Annie. This timeline – them being together like this – is an aberration.

“Abed?” she repeats, and he tries to move his focus away from his spiraling thoughts. Her expression reminds him of the first time she was in the Dreamatorium, when she found him. Concern and affection. “I said, what about Happy Together?”

Happy Together. The Turtles. Featured in _Bubble Boy_ , _The Simpsons Movie_ , the _Freaky Friday_ remake, among others. Many, many others. If he closes his eyes, he can almost see the cascade of images.

He doesn’t say this, though. “We should listen to it,” he says instead, impulsively. It’s as if something bigger than himself is driving him. Fate, maybe.

Annie’s brow is still creased with concern but she finds the song on YouTube and plays it on her phone.

_Imagine me and you, I do_

Her hand is warm in his. He wonders if any of the other Abeds are happy. The music washes over him and he hears the words as if he’s listening to the song for the first time.

_Imagine how the world could be so very fine_

“Do you like this song?” she asks after a minute.

_Me and you, and you and me, no matter how they toss the dice, it had to be_

It takes him a second to find his voice. “It’s perfect,” he says.

Annie beams. “We did it!”

He feels his mouth quirk into a smile. “We did it.”

She leans back on the couch and closes her eyes. Abed leans over, takes her phone, and hits “repeat.”

**Author's Note:**

> NOW WITH ACCOMPANYING PLAYMOSS MIX: https://playmoss.com/en/womanofaction/playlist/aa-phone-sex


End file.
